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It really surprised me how, early on, I heard so many people dissing how Mario Galaxy implemented multiplayer support. About 5 days ago, I broke down and grabbed Mario Galaxy and started playing it along with my sister. I also created a different file that was specifically for playing purely single player.

My conclusion is that Mario Galaxy is honestly the best implementation I have ever seen for multiplayer support in a primarily single player game. Nintendo has already tried it before with Windwaker having the Tingle tuner, but that was cumbersome to set up, and created the situation where the second player had few points in which they could readily assist the main player, but much more often they could easily become a hindrance.

I've already rescued Peach, and there is NO point in the game that I have seen that I have needed 2nd player support in order to get through a level, but there is also NOT EVEN A SINGLE INSTANCE in which the benefits of the 2nd player could not be seen.

There is a lot of multitasking to be done while playing solo, starbits can easily become a distraction, and as much effort has to be focused on dealing with the enemies and not getting injured as it is just managing to keep control of mario during weird inversions of mario or the camera.

When Player 2 steps into the game, they can collect starbits out the wazoo, and also help keep enemies from being able to harm you. Which leaves you to concentrate solely on navigating the level and collecting coins and Life plus mushrooms. The 2nd player also has the ability to make mario jump, super jump(if timed properly with 1st player) or do a spin jump when Mario is midair. The jumping feature has become much less essential as I have gotten better adjusted to the controls, but there have still been numerous times in which the second player adding that spin jump has been the difference between getting onto that ledge and missing that ledge, sometimes making the difference between life and death.

The most important feature of the 2nd player is the ability to stop enemies and some projectiles. everything from goombas and coconuts to bullet bills and (chainless) chomps. By stopping bullet bills, the 1st player has ample time and leeway to move around in order to get the bullet bills lined up to crash into the various cages that they are needed to break. If mario is down to just one life point, you no longer need to worry about whether the enemy you are trying to bounce on for a coin will end up killing you instead, because when the 2nd player holds them still, the enemy can't hurt mario at all. Bounce on the enemy for a coin and suddenly you've taken all the pressure off of the 1st player.

Player 2 can stop coconuts that are hurled by enemies, making it easier to reach them in order to send them back to hit the enemies they came from. King Kaliente becomes significantly easier to beat with 2nd player support. Player 2 can also stop shrinking floors from disappearing, allowing you to relax and plan out your course of action while running on them.

That's not even getting into the ability to shoot starbits at enemies(and those stupid rabbits). Sure, if you have someone who's trigger happy, it could get annoying, but there are enough other ways for them to help that as long as you aren't trying to play with a complete asshole, you're practically guaranteed to benefit from having the 2nd player support.

Even a master gamer will be able to see benefits from having even a novice 2nd player support them, and a novice gamer can greatly benefit from the support of a fellow novice gamer or a master gamer alike. It's totally optional, and the second player can walk in and out of the game as they want without the game having to be stopped for them (unless the first player wants the second player's help that badly)

As far as the game itself goes, I actually prefer the original Mario 64, but in my eyes, the way that multiplayer support in Mario galaxy has been implemented makes up for that by leaps and bounds.



Seppukuties is like LBP Lite, on crack. Play it already!

Currently wrapped up in: Half Life, Portal, and User Created Source Mods
Games I want: (Wii)Mario Kart, Okami, Bully, Conduit,  No More Heroes 2 (GC) Eternal Darkness, Killer7, (PS2) Ico, God of War1&2, Legacy of Kain: SR2&Defiance


My Prediction: Wii will be achieve 48% market share by the end of 2008, and will achieve 50% by the end of june of 09. Prediction Failed.

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